Including a buoyant B&M seeing group sales grow almost 20% for its full year.
The Source rounds up some of the key retail stories of the week.
Buoyant B&M saw group sales increase 19.4% to £2.43 billion in the 52 weeks to March 25, 2017. UK like for like growth rose 3.1%, up from 0.9% in 2016, while pre-tax profit was up 18.4% to £182.9 million. During the period, B&M opened 53 new UK stores and 19 in Germany. There are plans to repeat that growth this year, with 40-50 stores planned in the UK and 15 in Germany. B&M has also revised its UK store target from 850 to at least 950 stores nationwide.
Card Factory saw its underlying group sales rise 6.1% in the three months to April 30, while also reporting like for like sales at the upper end of its targeted range of 1%-3%. The retailer also said that it is on track to deliver its target of 50 new stores in its current financial year – it opened 11 during the quarter while plans to enter the Republic of Ireland are also progressing.
John Lewis saw its sales slip 5.6% to £76.24 million in the week to May 27. In the first 17 weeks, sales inched up by 0.7%. Warm weather products in fashion grew 15% – with a record week for sales of sandals (+26%) – however fashion sales overall were down 5%. Home sales also dropped 4.8%, although the warmer weather helped outdoor living sales (including barbecues) soar 54%.
Fashion retailer Jack Wills is planning to open further international stores over the coming months. Plans to open in Sylt in northern Germany were reported by the Daily Mail, while there are plans to open 11 more stores. Jack Wills already has over 90 outlets across the UK, US, Hong Kong, the Middle East and Singapore.
Tesco is teaming with Dixons Carphone to trial Currys PC World concessions in some of its larger supermarkets. Two outlets will open this summer – in the Milton Keynes Extra store in July and the Weston Favell Extra store in August – stocking a tailored range of products including TVs, computers, white goods and accessories, according to Retail Week.
Meanwhile, Tesco has delivered a grocery order within an hour using a robot and is now considering a wider roll out of robot deliveries. According to The Grocer, Tesco has teamed with Starship Technologies for the service. The robots can carry items within a three-mile radius, delivering goods to customers’ homes either from stores or special delivery hubs.
Nielsen’s latest grocery market barometer has shown that Tesco grew its sales 2.2% in the 12 weeks to May 20, taking its share of the sector to 27.2%. Morrisons increased sales by 1.4%, while Sainsbury’s grew 1.2%. Meanwhile, Asda dipped 0.1% with its market share standing at 14%. Aldi and Lidl continued to grow revenues ahead of the market, achieving 18.1% and 19.7% respectively, with the combined market share reaching 13.5%.
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